The Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship

The Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship is an annual award that allows professional writers living in Scotland to enjoy a month-long residency at the Hôtel Chevillon International Arts Centre at Grez-sur-Loing in France with a stipend of £1,200. Each year, four writers are invited to spend time with other artists and absorb fresh cultural experiences.

Robert Louis Stevenson frequently visited the Hôtel Chevillon during the 1870s (he even met his future wife, Fanny Osbourne, there) and the hotel continues to offer a fantastic working environment for artists and writers, via The Stiftelsen Foundation.

Here’s what a previous Fellow had to say about their experience:

'I have never found writing easy or quick and felt so stuck with whether to continue writing at all when I applied for the RLS Fellowship. No glitz, two small rooms to myself, a window. I walked, bought fresh bread, talked to the geese, poked about the ruins, listened for wild wild things and slept in the afternoon every day. I read and worried and even sometimes slept at night. I took notes. The perfectly necessary things of home — especially self-blame for having no energy — could not insist. Two showers every day without feeling wasteful, reading all night or sitting still might sound crazy things to value, but noticing and enjoying the tiniest things are what give permission. ’Being a writer’ is scary for some of us. Securing an RLS residency did not give me ‘experiences’, it gave me a chance to breathe. And that’s where writing - and everything else - come from. Thank you RLS.' Janice Galloway

About Grez-sur-Loing

Grez-sur-Loing is situated at the edge of the Forest of Fontainebleau, France, and was chosen because of its connections with Robert Louis Stevenson, who first visited in 1875. It was there, at the Hôtel Chevillon, that he met his future wife, Fanny Osbourne. Stevenson found both the place and its well-established community of writers and artists highly attractive, and he returned to Grez-sur-Loing for three successive summers.